


Chilled to my bone

by Alecto



Series: Fictober 2020 [10]
Category: Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters (Anime & Manga)
Genre: Ambiguous/Open Ending, Fictober 2020, Hurt/Comfort, Kidnapping, M/M, Mild Blood, Minor Injuries, Post-Canon, Pre-Relationship, Trapped
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-16
Updated: 2021-03-16
Packaged: 2021-03-25 06:07:47
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,204
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/30084633
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Alecto/pseuds/Alecto
Summary: Why did Kaiba’s tournaments always come hand-in-hand with some kind of death trap?Jounouchi finds himself trapped in a freezer with Kaiba and no clear means of escape.
Relationships: Jounouchi Katsuya | Joey Wheeler/Kaiba Seto
Series: Fictober 2020 [10]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2007610
Comments: 9
Kudos: 36





	Chilled to my bone

**Author's Note:**

> Fictober 2020 Day 11 prompt: "I told you so"

Fighting a shiver, Jounouchi cupped his hands around his mouth and blew warm air over his chilled fingers and palms. 

Bang!

The solid metal door barely shuddered in its frame. A string of aggressive swearing followed the next loud bang.

Jounouchi gave up on trying to warm his hands. Instead, he hugged his exposed arms and rubbed them in a vain attempt to generate some heat. His gaze flickered to the thermometer on the nearby wall, where the reading still showed 5 degrees Celsius. He looked back at his companion instead, who remained hellbent on trying to force open the door.

"I told you so. That thing ain't gonna budge," Jounouchi said and immediately regretted it as frigid air flooded into his mouth and throat and clawed into his chest cavity. He clenched his teeth together and rubbed his biceps harder.

Turning sharply, Kaiba drilled into him with eyes frostier than the temperature inside the locked freezer. "At least I'm doing something, instead of rolling over like a beaten dog with its tail between its legs," snarled the other duelist.

Jounouchi bristled at the insult, but not even his anger was enough to warm his rapidly cooling body. "No, the only thing you're gonna accomplish is busting your shoulder on that door. You said that our Duel Disks"—he tapped the device still strapped to his left arm—"have built-in emergency beacons. Someone's bound to notice us, well, at least you're missing and come looking for us."

Kaiba's eyes darted around the room, no doubt hunting for some weakness in the structure he was convinced only he could spot. "That's the best-case scenario. Depending on how thick these walls are or if they're shielded, the GPS signal may not be able to penetrate."

As Kaiba began pacing back and forth, the tail of his long, white trenchcoat billowed and swirled dramatically around his knees. At that moment, Jounouchi wished, for the first time ever, that his fashion sense was more like the other boy's. A coat and a turtleneck would go a long way to stave off the cold. In his thin t-shirt and jeans, Jounouchi was bound to become a popsicle first.

Jounouchi shifted uneasily from one foot to the other, then back again. "Unless your superpower's actually being super-strong and not a super-dick, we're not getting out of here without some help from the outside."

He cast a look around the empty and freezing room, wondering if it had been used for anything other than holding kidnapped duelists. Why the hell had he and Kaiba been taken together? Maybe they just wanted Kaiba—asshole had way too many enemies, and they _always_ came crawling out of the woodwork during tournaments—and Jounouchi had been unlucky enough to be in the right place and right time? Dammit, all he wanted was _one_ duel with Kaiba, preferably ending in a win that'd wipe that smug expression off his face once and for all. 

Now, he was stuck in an enclosed space with his worst enemy, who was prowling like a caged animal. No phones. Those had been stripped and dumped off them right when they were taken. But for some reason he couldn't fathom, the kidnappers had let them keep their Duel Disks. Maybe because they didn't know about the emergency beacon? That didn't sound like a feature that was common knowledge. Jounouchi hadn't known about it until Kaiba told him.

Or maybe they already knew about the beacons, and Kaiba was right about the walls being too thick. Another full-bodied shudder racked Jounouchi as he was chilled to his bone both by the cold and the doomed realization. He quickly turned his attention back to the other boy and hoped his usual vitriol would distract himself from his dread. 

Instead, Kaiba stared at him, not blinking like a complete freak for almost a full three seconds before stomping away.

"Dick," Jounouchi muttered, his breath pouring out from between his trembling lips like a cumulus cloud.

Ignoring Kaiba, Jounouchi sank into a sitting position on the floor and pulled his knees to his chest before resting his head against them. If he made himself smaller like this, it would keep his body heat from escaping as quickly, right? The next few minutes crawled by at an agonizing pace. 

"So who do you think did this?" he asked, finally unable to stand the silence. 

"Whoever they are, they'll regret it soon enough," said Kaiba from a far corner of the room.

"You must have some idea," urged Jounouchi. His body was shivering in full earnest now, and he couldn't feel anything in his fingertips. He curled into a smaller ball. 

"No. I didn't recognize any of their voices."

Jounouchi thought back to their four kidnappers. Not all of them had spoken, but the two who did had sounded like men. All of them had been dressed from head to toe in black, while their faces had been covered by black balaclavas. Cliche, but still effective.

"That they were careful to hide their identities may be a good thing for us. If they hadn't tried, I'd be far more worried that they intend to kill us outright. So far, their behavior suggests they want a ransom or some other demand."

"Yeah, but why stick us in here then? They could have stuck us in any old room. This feels an awful lot like they're trying to kill us. Or you. Whatever."

A heavy silence reigned. Jounouchi thought he'd brought up a rather astute point, so Kaiba'd better appreciate it. 

The thought of dying curdled in his stomach. Unlike many of his near brushes with death so far, this one was given time to sit with him. It lingered and languished next to him like a terminal cancer patient. Not just a mere instance of flashing terror and heart-stopping fear. This one wrapped him in its frigid fingers and squeezed him—his heart, his lungs, his very thoughts—until the overwhelming dread was all he'd ever known. 

He didn't want to die. Not yet. Not here. Not trapped with fucking Kaiba of all people. At least when he'd almost drowned in Domino Bay, he'd been with Yuugi. Back then, he'd even made his peace with death if it meant being able to save his best friend. 

This was a million times worse than drowning. Slightly less painful maybe, but slower by many degrees and just as inevitable. 

"You're not dead yet, deadbeat." 

Kaiba's words, spoken much closer than expected, jolted him out of his stupor. He raised his head to stare into the other duelist's face, whose brows were knotted in what might be an expression of concern. Jounouchi shook his head to clear it. Kaiba's expression was as haughty as it'd always been.

His teeth chattered when he next opened his mouth to reply. "Maybe not now, but give it another hour or so." 

Kaiba's eyes raked over his body, or what he could see given Jounouchi's hunched positioning. "You're shivering quite badly," he observed almost too quietly. 

Jounouchi gestured to his summer attire. "I'm definitely gonna freeze to death before you do. So at least you won't have to spend your final minutes listening to me run my mouth. So congrats on that," he spat bitterly. 

Kaiba pursed his lips. "You blame me for this." 

Dropping his gaze to the ground, Jounouchi twisted the denim fabric in his grip. "I dunno. Maybe. Kinda. Not really. I mean, you're an asshole, but I don't think you deserve this either. I don't think I'd wish this bullshit on my worst enemy. This doesn't sound like a great way to go." 

"It can be quite peaceful by the end, or so I've read." 

Jounouchi swallowed a bubble of hysteria. He wasn't going to lose it. "You like reading about hypothermia as a hobby, huh? Why ain't I surprised about that?" 

"It helps to be prepared," replied Kaiba flatly. 

The overwhelming desire to hit Kaiba in the face rose like a tide, and Jounouchi swallowed that too. 

"We're not at risk of hypothermia yet. We have time still, but I need to effectively utilize it before the secondary symptoms set in. The longer we remain here, the harder it will be to mount our rescue." 

Whatever "secondary symptoms" Kaiba was worried about must have already set in for Jounouchi because he already found it difficult to keep up with the other boy. Without warning, Kaiba stripped off his outer coat and tossed it to him. Jounouchi's numb fingers almost didn't catch it. 

Kaiba stood, unfurling into a tall, lean shadow in complete black as his attention left Jounouchi once more. "Hold onto that. It'll only get in the way while I find us a way out of here."

He stalked away without another word.

Jounouchi clutched Kaiba's coat dumbly. The red inner lining was softer to the touch than he'd imagined it being. Then again, Jounouchi was so damn close to losing all feeling in his hands. Kaiba had moved clear to the other side of the room to study several vents and pipe snaking out of the wall, along with the industrial fan circulating freezing air into the unit. Jounouchi stared at Kaiba's discarded coat again. Was this Kaiba trying to do him a kindness? Giving him his jacket to fend off the cold in the most blase and nonchalant way possible?

Did Jounouchi dare to accept it?

After a second, he decided pride was better saved for occasions where he wasn't about to freeze to death. With clumsy hands, he pulled on the coat, briefly bemoaning the lack of sleeves, and pulled the raised collar around his neck and throat to protect the exposed skin in that region. The coat weighed more than he'd expected. Probably because of the metal studs lining the white leather, and as he ran his fingers along the length of the coat, he felt a wireframe underneath that helped to keep the coat's shape. No wonder Kaiba always looked dramatic and perpetually windswept while wearing the thing.

The sound of Kaiba talking to himself, pacing, and messing with things continued in the background, and Jounouchi tried to concentrate on the noise. Most of what Kaiba said was lost on him, but he appreciated the reminder that he wasn't alone. Even with the extra layer, the cold was beginning to seep into his bones and veins, creating a sluggishness that weighed down his limbs. Time slipped by in a way that escaped Jounouchi's grasp entirely.

How long had they been trapped in this freezer? An hour? Three? 

Across the room, Kaiba suddenly made a faint noise of triumph. Jounouchi looked at the other duelist to find him hanging almost a meter off the ground while clinging to the top of a fan unit sticking out of the wall. For some reason, Jounouchi's heart sped up.

"What the hell are you doing, Kaiba?" he asked through chattering teeth.

"If I can get inside this casing, I might be able to reach the wiring or other internal mechanisms," explained Kaiba. Sweat trickled down the side of his face, which Jounouchi attributed to the exertion of doing an extended pull-up. "It could buy us more time."

"Dude, you don't have enough leverage. You're gonna hurt yourself," insisted Jounouchi.

"Shut up, I found a loose panel. If I can just— There—" Kaiba wrenched his arm down, yanking at the edge of sheet metal. "Shit!" he cursed as he lost his grip, fell, and hit the icy floor with a sickening thud.

With his heart in his throat, Jounouchi climbed to his feet and rushed over to the other boy, who was groaning and clutching his hand to his chest. "Dammit, Kaiba, you alright? Talk to me!"

Panting, Kaiba pushed up on his elbows, still cradling his dominant hand protectively. When Jounouchi dropped to his knees next to the other boy, he finally caught sight of the nasty, jagged cut running down the center of Kaiba's palm. Droplets of blood now littered the ground where he'd fallen, while fresh blood continued to ooze from the open wound. Thankfully, Kaiba didn't appear to have broken anything with his fall.

"Shit, you're bleeding," said Jounouchi with mounting panic as he helped Kaiba into a sitting position. "This is bad."

"It was already bad to begin with," spat Kaiba through gritted teeth. 

They needed to stop the bleeding and wrap the wound. After a bit of internal debate, Jounouchi tore off one of his t-shirt sleeves to use as a makeshift bandage. Kaiba made a strange noise that almost sounded like a protest, but Jounouchi ignored him. He grabbed Kaiba's hand and held fast to it, even as the other boy tried to push him away. Jounouchi wound the strip of cloth tightly around Kaiba's hand and tied a somewhat sloppy-looking knot over the palm. Blood immediately seeped into the light blue cotton, dying it a splotchy crimson. Grabbing Kaiba's hand, he clasped their palms together and hoped the pressure would stop the bleeding soon. 

"Why did you do that?" hissed Kaiba while glaring.

"What was I supposed to do? Just let you bleed to death? I hate to admit it, but I need you in one piece. Cuz if anyone's gonna figure out a way to get us out of here, it's gonna be you," snapped Jounouchi in return.

They sat on the floor without speaking for several long beats. If someone found them now, they'd look ridiculous. Like two misbehaving children forced to make up and hold hands as a reconciliatory gesture. Jounouchi swore he could feel Kaiba's pulse hammering through the palms of their twined hands. Or maybe that was his own heartbeat running into overdrive? The wet spot in the fabric grew clammy to the touch, but Jounouchi didn't let go. Kaiba's fingers were equally icy against his skin, but the contact ignited a tiny spark of heat between their skin. 

Eventually, Jounouchi pried his hand away to poke a finger at the bandage's deep red stain. Kaiba's fingers twitched as he sucked in a sharp breath, but he didn't withdraw. 

"The bleeding's stopped," reassured Kaiba.

But as Jounouchi looked upon the other man's face, taking in how his bangs fell limp and wet over the deep furrow between his brow and the slight blue tinge of his lips, he found other reasons to be concerned. Kaiba shook with each shuddering breath, exhaling hitched breaths of steam that threatened to freeze in the air as soon as they left their lungs. Under the harsh fluorescent lighting, his clammy skin had taken on a pale and sickly pallor. The top half of his collar was an even darker black than the rest of his turtleneck when drenched with sweat and visibly stuck to his neck.

"Shit, how'd you get so bad so quickly? You didn't lose that much blood, did ya?" Jounouchi panicked.

Kaiba winced. "It's the sweating. You lose body heat faster when wet."

"And you still went climbing around like a freaking monkey?" Jounouchi wanted to shake the asshole. It was just like Kaiba to do the one thing most likely to backfire and blow up in his face.

"I couldn't sit there and do nothing!" roared Kaiba. 

Stunned by the sudden outburst, Jounouchi gaped. Kaiba quickly turned his head away, but not before Jounouchi saw the wild and trapped look that'd overtaken his eyes and face. For some reason, he'd yet to take his hand away. If they were in almost any other situation, Kaiba would have shoved him away by now. But they could help but gravitate toward each other now, guided by the blind instinct to seek out any source of warmth.

"We're not getting out that way," stated Jounouchi, his gaze flicking up toward the warped sheet metal on the underside of the ventilation unit.

"No, we're not," Kaiba confirmed bitterly.

"We're gonna have to hope that the emergency beacon is enough," added Jounouchi.

Kaiba scoffed and hunched his shoulders defensively. "Hope."

"Don't be like that. We've been through worse. We just have to hold on, buy our friends or your guys the time to find us, right?"

Jounouchi released Kaiba's lukewarm hand to peel Kaiba's coat off his back. He took a deep breath, hesitating, before firmly sliding over and pressing his legs and side against Kaiba. He reached one arm across Kaiba's bunched shoulders. Kaiba froze at the first brush of Jounouchi's hand, becoming a stone—or an ice sculpture in this case, as Jounouchi spread his coat across both of their backs. They sat stiffly side-by-side, so close that the cloudy tendrils of their breaths touched and mixed. 

Inside his head, Jounouchi counted down the minutes until Kaiba's patience reached its limit. For Kaiba to leave and retreat to another part of the room, even if it was to both of their disadvantages. Meanwhile, he rubbed his bare arm against the fine wool of Kaiba's sleeve, stealing what heat he could. 

Yet as time stretched on without rescue in sight, Kaiba sagged his weight against Jounouchi. Then he reached out and tucked one of Jounouchi's exposed arms under his armpit, enveloping it in a feeble cocoon of warmth. A lump lodged in Jounouchi's throat, and the only thing he could bring himself to do was to lace their fingers together. The tacky feel of blood-stained cotton chafed his palm. He ignored the sensation to focus on Kaiba's thumb caressing his wrist. 

Jounouchi couldn't remember the last time he'd been this close to another human being, much less Kaiba. A small part of him wondered what it'd be like to get even closer. To push his cold face to Kaiba's and seal their lips together. Maybe that would keep the remaining heat trapped between them in a closed system and keep them alive for a while longer. A slight flush flooded his cheeks and neck, bringing with it a blessed hot tingling sensation. 

No. There was no way he'd ever kiss Kaiba, even if they were at death's door. 

Fighting the urge to hide his face, Jounouchi shook off the intrusive thought. He kept his eyes fixed on a point on the opposite wall, ignoring Kaiba with every fiber of his being even as he sensed the other boy's intense gaze on his cheek. That must be another symptom of hypothermia, but he was too afraid to ask Kaiba to confirm. 

"Jounouchi, you shouldn't have been caught up in this." 

Kaiba's use of his name shattered the quiet, like taking a hammer to glass. A foreign expression that might be guilt-ridden met Jounouchi's stunned gaze. 

Kaiba opened his mouth again. "I'm sor—" 

"No, stop. Don't you dare apologize." Jounouchi's body shook not from the temperature but from a dreadful sensation quaking through him. "You've never done it under threat of death, and you're not gonna start now. I'm not ready to die yet, Kaiba."

"You're not going to die, Jounouchi," Kaiba growled, low and gravelly, as a familiar determined fire lit his eyes. 

Despite himself, a wry grin wormed across Jounouchi's lips. "I guess that must be true if Kaiba Seto says so." 

Kaiba's hand briefly squeezed his. "Damn right." 

**Author's Note:**

> It's an open ending, but I guess they'll be fine? ¯\\_(ツ)_/¯


End file.
